I've been playing Fallout 4 since Christmas, and let me tell you that I am addicted.As I played the game, however, I couldn't help noticing the very many elements it had in common with other media I had seen regarding nuclear weaponry. As I kept playing, I kept making mental notes about these similitudes, and what kind of message a gamer could take away from the game.
It is no question that Fallout 4 is a work of post apocalyptic fiction, specifically post nuclear. In an alternate world where the spirit of the American 50's never died, where American exceptionalism and trust in atomic energy kept on well into the 21st century, humanity was nearly destroyed by the atom bomb. The world of Fallout is mostly barren, lacking substantially in plant life, while most animal and human life is mutated beyond recognition. The most harmless beings in the world are either giant radioactive cockroaches or two headed cancer-ridden cows. There are no cities, no infrastructure, and almost everyone lives in shacks. Also, radioactive storms are disturbingly common occurences.
Post apocalyptic work has been popular since at least the 1960's, where the dangerous naivete regarding atomic energy died out and people realized "holy shit we've created a weapon that can end the world". During the fifties and sixties, anti-nuclear war art had gained considerable momentum and pop culture recognition. Examples include The Day the Earth Stood Still, and of course, Doctor Strangelove. Fear of nuclear annihilation became more pronounced during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest the world ever came to nuclear war.
The 1980's saw a rise of nuclear post apocalyptic works, Examples include the acclaimed film Akira, which helped create an anime boom in the West. Other works include Fist of the North Star, Threads, The Day After, among many more. The last of these two, however, differ in that they show that a nuclear war WILL destroy humanity, and we won't even get the privilege of it being instantaenous.
The idea of "surviving" a nuclear war is based on the hope that humanity can overcome any disaster, regardless of how devastating it can be. This in turn makes works that show how we WON'T survive all the more poignant. This, of course, is important to bear in mind given the times these works were made: the Cold War, when nuclear annihilation was a real possibility.
This goes back to Fallout 4, a game that takes place in a world where the Cold War never really ended, and with it, the possibility of nuclear annihilation.The lore of Fallout states that the US and China fought each other in a war over oil. Prices have inflated to unreasonable heights (how unreasonable? Try 137 dollars for a gallon of oil, or 5 grand for ONE game of bowling) people are going hungry, and nuclear war seems inevitable. On October 23, 2077, the nukes flew, and the world ended.
Fallout 4 actually shows that day. It was a normal day; people were working, children were in school. Then the bombs were dropped. Some lucky souls managed to find shelter, but the ovewhelming majority did not. Indeed, if you play the game and pay attention to detail, you'll see plenty of skeletons, charred corpses, and residue from the war. Two hundred years after the bombs went off, and the world is but a shadow of its former self.
It is important to note that, very often, post apocalyptic works that show the detonation of the nukes take great pains to depict the day the bombs drop as being otherwise normal. Why? Because it's a reminder that nukes can be dropped at any time. Doesn't matter what you're doing, what's going on in your life, because those bombs are going down, and when they land, boom goes everything. This is due to the fact that, in real life, people were always on edge over the bomb scare. They knew those nukes could go down at any moment, because the US and USSR were, literally, one slipup away from launching everything they had at each other. You'd often have MINUTES to react, and THAT is if you had the luck to have heard the warning sirens.
Nuclear apocalyptic fiction served a greater purpose than entertainment, it was a dire warning to the world. But why was it needed? Because for a brief moment in time, humanity was blissfully unaware of just how dangerous nuclear weaponry truly was. People actually thought you only needed to duck and cover to survive a nuclear blast! This crazy notion didn't get overturned overnight, it took years of anti nuclear propaganda. It wasn't until the 1980's that people actually saw nuclear war as unwinnable by design. What's the point of winning a war when all you have left is radioactive cinders?
There is one movie that is credited for saving the world. The Day After was seen by president Ronald Reagan, and he was so spooked by what he saw that he worked harder to ensure that he form a nuclear pact with the USSR, helping to prevent a nuclear holocaust. The film helped open his eyes to the folly of nuclear war, an experience that was drastically needed, as members of the Pentagon were speaking of being able to win a nuclear war. One film helped save the world. A score of films, radio dramas, and books helped inform generations of the dangers of nuclear war.
But that time has passed. There is now, as of this writing, no danger of nuclear war, at least not at the level of the Cold War. So, what would be the point of Fallout, a series about nuclear apocalypse? Besides being a send-up to the genre, Fallout is a brief look to a world that never stopped trusting the atom, one where the general populace never grew out of the naivete of the 50's, where duck and cover remained a viable strategy for surviving a nuclear war. It's not our future, not anymore. But it could have been, were it not for the brave voices who dared to shout to the world "that shit's dangerous!"
It is no question that Fallout 4 is a work of post apocalyptic fiction, specifically post nuclear. In an alternate world where the spirit of the American 50's never died, where American exceptionalism and trust in atomic energy kept on well into the 21st century, humanity was nearly destroyed by the atom bomb. The world of Fallout is mostly barren, lacking substantially in plant life, while most animal and human life is mutated beyond recognition. The most harmless beings in the world are either giant radioactive cockroaches or two headed cancer-ridden cows. There are no cities, no infrastructure, and almost everyone lives in shacks. Also, radioactive storms are disturbingly common occurences.
Post apocalyptic work has been popular since at least the 1960's, where the dangerous naivete regarding atomic energy died out and people realized "holy shit we've created a weapon that can end the world". During the fifties and sixties, anti-nuclear war art had gained considerable momentum and pop culture recognition. Examples include The Day the Earth Stood Still, and of course, Doctor Strangelove. Fear of nuclear annihilation became more pronounced during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the closest the world ever came to nuclear war.
The 1980's saw a rise of nuclear post apocalyptic works, Examples include the acclaimed film Akira, which helped create an anime boom in the West. Other works include Fist of the North Star, Threads, The Day After, among many more. The last of these two, however, differ in that they show that a nuclear war WILL destroy humanity, and we won't even get the privilege of it being instantaenous.
The idea of "surviving" a nuclear war is based on the hope that humanity can overcome any disaster, regardless of how devastating it can be. This in turn makes works that show how we WON'T survive all the more poignant. This, of course, is important to bear in mind given the times these works were made: the Cold War, when nuclear annihilation was a real possibility.
This goes back to Fallout 4, a game that takes place in a world where the Cold War never really ended, and with it, the possibility of nuclear annihilation.The lore of Fallout states that the US and China fought each other in a war over oil. Prices have inflated to unreasonable heights (how unreasonable? Try 137 dollars for a gallon of oil, or 5 grand for ONE game of bowling) people are going hungry, and nuclear war seems inevitable. On October 23, 2077, the nukes flew, and the world ended.
Fallout 4 actually shows that day. It was a normal day; people were working, children were in school. Then the bombs were dropped. Some lucky souls managed to find shelter, but the ovewhelming majority did not. Indeed, if you play the game and pay attention to detail, you'll see plenty of skeletons, charred corpses, and residue from the war. Two hundred years after the bombs went off, and the world is but a shadow of its former self.
It is important to note that, very often, post apocalyptic works that show the detonation of the nukes take great pains to depict the day the bombs drop as being otherwise normal. Why? Because it's a reminder that nukes can be dropped at any time. Doesn't matter what you're doing, what's going on in your life, because those bombs are going down, and when they land, boom goes everything. This is due to the fact that, in real life, people were always on edge over the bomb scare. They knew those nukes could go down at any moment, because the US and USSR were, literally, one slipup away from launching everything they had at each other. You'd often have MINUTES to react, and THAT is if you had the luck to have heard the warning sirens.
Nuclear apocalyptic fiction served a greater purpose than entertainment, it was a dire warning to the world. But why was it needed? Because for a brief moment in time, humanity was blissfully unaware of just how dangerous nuclear weaponry truly was. People actually thought you only needed to duck and cover to survive a nuclear blast! This crazy notion didn't get overturned overnight, it took years of anti nuclear propaganda. It wasn't until the 1980's that people actually saw nuclear war as unwinnable by design. What's the point of winning a war when all you have left is radioactive cinders?
There is one movie that is credited for saving the world. The Day After was seen by president Ronald Reagan, and he was so spooked by what he saw that he worked harder to ensure that he form a nuclear pact with the USSR, helping to prevent a nuclear holocaust. The film helped open his eyes to the folly of nuclear war, an experience that was drastically needed, as members of the Pentagon were speaking of being able to win a nuclear war. One film helped save the world. A score of films, radio dramas, and books helped inform generations of the dangers of nuclear war.
But that time has passed. There is now, as of this writing, no danger of nuclear war, at least not at the level of the Cold War. So, what would be the point of Fallout, a series about nuclear apocalypse? Besides being a send-up to the genre, Fallout is a brief look to a world that never stopped trusting the atom, one where the general populace never grew out of the naivete of the 50's, where duck and cover remained a viable strategy for surviving a nuclear war. It's not our future, not anymore. But it could have been, were it not for the brave voices who dared to shout to the world "that shit's dangerous!"
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